In the Aftermath
by Dark Maria
Summary: Part Seven of 'Fair Winds of Cybertron'. Our heroes travel home and try to recover from what they were put through. But all is not well, at least for one of them... Questions are answered and preparations are made. Read and review, please.
1. Questions answered

All right, here we go. Here's what happens _after_ 'What Remained Behind'. If you want to know what happened before this, read 'What Remained Behind'.

In the Aftermath

A few days of westward travel across several borders, all of which they avoided by cutting through open desert, brought them to a port city west of Gibraltar. Waiting until late at night before pulling into a secluded area, they all transformed for a good look at their way home. Megatron balked. "Wait, we're taking a _boat?_" Optimus gave him what could only be described as 'one of those looks'. "Of course we're taking a boat. What did you _think_ we'd be doing?" The silver Decepticon glared right back. "Well, excuse me! I don't exactly have a very good track record with boats, if you remember. The last one I rode in threw me overboard!" Zephyr walked up next to him and took his arm, trying to calm him down. "That's because they thought you were dead." He nodded, shutting up. Turning to the rest, Optimus issued his orders. "We're going to hide out here until around midnight. See that one freighter over there?" He pointed toward a freighter that was loading up at the far end of the dock. "I looked in their computer systems and they're bound for America, just like us… plus a good portion of their cargo appears to be vehicles. They leave at dawn." A moment later, he looked to the rest again. "We're going to be waiting in vehicle form until it's time to go. Don't break cover unless your immediate safety… or Sam's… is threatened. Especially _you, _Bumblebee." He turned to where Megatron and Zephyr stood. "You two would be conspicuous even in vehicle form. Zephyr, switch into Sarah at least until we get back to America. You'll have an easier time hiding that way. Megatron will be able to protect you if anything happens. Megatron, I don't know how you'll be able to hide yourself." The former Decepticon shook his head with a smile. "I'll find a way. Even if it's just climbing around on top of those cargo containers. Anything is possible to the truly resourceful!"

Things went off without a hitch, and soon they were on board the freighter they had chosen to be their ride home. Dawn came and went and soon they were out on the open sea, tucked away in their chosen hiding places on the spray-swept deck, dodging the ship's crew… at least the humans and Megatron were. As for the rest, they simply sat in vehicle form and were ignored completely. Morning faded into afternoon and on into night. With night's arrival came a slackening on the ship's security, allowing those who wished to do so to come out of hiding. Slipping away from where Megatron sat huddled behind a pile of cargo containers and quietly swore to himself repeatedly about various things related to their current method of travel, Sarah sought out Optimus. She had no idea where he was, so she quietly wandered around the boat. Coming across the vehicle forms of their newest allies, she took a few minutes to actually take a close look at them. Sideswipe was the most visible even in disguise. His vehicle form suited him; the cool silver contours matching his hotshot personality almost perfectly. He'd taken his name from the incident that had brought him to her; he'd been sideswiped on the highway and very nearly been totaled upon crashing into the median. Looking over to the side, she saw the Chopper Sisters sitting together. Arcee's hot pink paintjob bore the initials of her owner, one Rachel Carson, and those initials had been the source of her name. Sarah had met her once; she'd been just as dynamic as Arcee was. Moonracer was built for racing, and she wasn't a straight purple as much as she was the color of the sky just after sunset, a starry night dominated by a large, beautifully rendered crescent moon. Once again, she had taken her name from her paintjob. Chromia had done the same, judging by the fact that every sleek line and curve was trimmed with glittering chrome. Off to the far side, Skids and Mudflap snored loudly enough to wake the hearing-impaired dead. Skids had come to her after his driver had made the mistake of driving after an especially heavy rain, and had skidded straight into oncoming traffic. Mudflap, however, had been on a dirt road when the vehicle ahead of him, lacking his a pair of his namesakes, had sprayed a huge, thick clot of mud onto his windshield and caused his driver to lose control. They had followed the example set by Sideswipe and taken their names from the incidents that had brought them to her. She had given them all life. Did that make her their mother?

Moving on, she continued her search until she located Optimus where he stood and watched the starry night sky, silently contemplating the utter insanity that had been the past few days. Death and resurrection… the Fallen… the key and the machine it powered… He was glad he'd salvaged the little thing, since it was the last remaining link to the origin of his people and their planet. Holding it in his hand, he stared at it contemplatively, almost imagining that the blue jewel at its core winked up at him knowingly. Such a strange little thing… "Hey," a voice said. His startled jump was almost comical as he spent a fairly breathless moment fearing that he'd been discovered. Turning, he saw Sarah trying with all her might not to laugh. "…Sarah," he said in return as she stepped closer to stand beside him. A moment passed as they both watched the starry sky. "You really need to talk to your brother once we get home. He blames himself for what happened to you." Optimus turned to look at her. "Why does he blame himself for something he had no hand in? There was nothing he could have done!" Wishing she didn't have to crane her head so far back to look him in the eye, Sarah shrugged. "He believes he could have prevented it completely if he'd just been a little faster. You know how unreasonable he can be when it comes to his own limitations. I've tried telling him, Ratchet's tried telling him… Heck, even _Sam's_ tried, and you know how badly Megatron still scares him! I'm thinking he'll only believe it coming from _you._" A moment of relative silence followed, broken only by the crash of waves breaking against the ship's hull. "…Sam blames himself too," Sarah said eventually. "He thinks it was all his fault because he was stupid enough to get caught. I keep telling him that we were _all_ taken by surprise by the Decepticons' sudden return to Earth, but he keeps not believing me. That's why he started avoiding you after your initial resurrection. He's scared to death that you'll blame him too." Optimus just quietly shook his head at that. Apparently stubborn refusal to see the truth wasn't a trait confined to one particular species.

"…I figured out where the imposter came from." The sound of her voice startled him. He'd thought she had left the area, to go rejoin her mate. "You did?" She paused, seeming a little embarrassed… or guilty. "I guess you could say it's _my_ fault." He looked down at her again. "What, now _you're_ blaming yourself too?" That statement drew a sigh from her. "Back when I first gained my power and became linked to Megatron, I didn't really have much control over either one. Like, none at all. You see, when Megatron let go of his anger, his hate, and all those other negative emotions, he effectively cast away the part of himself that was associated with everything he had been, namely the leader of the Decepticons as everyone had come to know him. A rather sizeable piece of his spark… sent out into a storm of berserk All Spark energy… The energy treated that fragment like it was a whole spark and built a body for it, based on what the 'donor' saw himself as. But there must not have been enough resources to properly complete the process. That must be why he's not a perfect replica. However, there was enough to transfer the things that really mattered. I was able to have a few words with him, as you know, so I know that all his knowledge is intact, and all his memories are intact too, right up to the moment of separation. The thing is, he's been stripped of all inhibitions, all ability to care what he destroys or who gets in his way… The imposter is a true monster in every sense of the word. And all because of me." Optimus, for his part, didn't bother arguing the point. He couldn't show her that it wasn't really her fault at all, just like the others couldn't show Megatron or Sam the same. No, all three of them would have to see it for themselves. "It's almost time for the morning shift to start," she said eventually. "Time for me to hide again before somebody comes and finds me just standing in the open."

Wandering off, she came across where Sam sat with Bumblebee and gave a smile as he met her gaze. He'd heard her talking with Optimus, but hadn't quite been able to catch the words. "…Does he blame me?" Sarah shook her head in mild exasperation. "Of course not! 'Stupid enough to get caught', huh? Going by that logic, Optimus's death would have been his own fault for letting his guard down. For the millionth time, the imposter is the one to blame!" Bumblebee agreed wholeheartedly. "It's the truth, you know. The imposter is the reason all of this stuff happened, not you. If you have to blame somebody, blame him! Besides, it all turned out just fine. We went looking for a way to bring Optimus back and ended up saving the whole universe. You can't argue with _that!_"

Returning to where Megatron hid, she was somewhat unnerved to find him shivering. He was sitting there and he was actually _shivering_ where he sat. The quiet yet unmistakable sound of her swift footsteps immediately drew his attention. "I'm all right," he said, correctly anticipating her question. She just tilted her head slightly, not believing him in the slightest. Something was wrong, but she couldn't tell just what, even with her powers. She wanted to know, but this was neither the time nor the place to do so. Such questions could wait until they got home. They had to, since only Ratchet's expertise could answer her questions this time around and she wasn't about to bother him when they were all supposed to be hiding out. "You may or may not have already known this, but we reach land tonight. They'll pull into dock in the early evening and, like before, move the cargo at dawn. Once again like before, Optimus will give the signal and we'll all sneak off together." He shivered again and she discounted it this time. After all, it was pretty wet and cold where he was seated. Ignoring the selfsame wet and cold, she walked over to him and scaled his massive arm as if she was climbing a mountain. His armor was downright frigid, but she ignored that too. Eventually she sat perched on a spur of shoulder armor, leaning up against a wing panel, much like Rumble used to do to her before keeping little Galvie out of trouble had turned into a full-time job. "Just a little longer, all right? One more day until dry land. Who knows, we might even reach our destination early. You're not the only one who's sick of this boat. I think we're all about ready to get back on dry land." Moving slowly and gently in an effort not to jostle his beloved, Megatron turned to look at her with a broad yet gentle smile. "It will indeed be good to get off this boat. Once we do, we've still got a long way to go until we reach home. We have to cross the entirety of America, after all. Would you like to ride with me when we do?" Even though she could sense how badly he wanted her to say yes, she had to say no. "That wouldn't be such a good idea, actually. You're our only air support unless I transform, after all, and having me with you would only slow you down. And I can't fly with you either. I don't have a disguise scanned, remember? I'm going to ride with one of the other boys, just like we did back in Egypt. I'll probably ride with Optimus, in order to make sure he's fully all right after what went on back there. I'm betting he's still having a hard time of it, so I plan to keep watch. I'm sorry, but we'll just have to wait until we reach home again." Reaching out with one hand, she affectionately stroked the wing panel she was leaning up against. "But once we get home we'll have loads of free time to do whatever we please." A tired-looking smile took shape on his face. "That'll be pretty good…" It was all she could do to smile back, given how worried his seeming fatigue made her. "Are you _sure_ you're all right?" He gave a sigh and looked down in an expression of equal parts disappointment and exasperation. "Slag it, I never _could_ lie to you… I've been feeling pretty off ever since the Fallen tried to crush my spark, even though you fixed me up. Some energon and a nice long nap should have me back to normal in no time flat." She sighed as well, stroking his wing panel again. "Well, I certainly hope so, because otherwise we're both doomed, in a pissed-off medic sort of way. If I tell Ratchet about this now, he'll get mad at me for breaking cover. If I tell him when we get home, he'll get mad at me for not telling him such an important thing right away." Megatron shuddered again, this time at the thought of Ratchet getting angry. "Now you've got _me_ hoping so too. I've known Ratchet a lot longer than you have!" Sitting back in preparation for staying with him a while, Sarah gave a smirk. "Now I'm wondering which form I'll be safer in. Should I switch to my real form once we're off the boat and make myself a viable target for thrown objects, or stay like this and risk him possibly deciding to throw _me_ instead of a wrench? Ironhide said that one time Ratchet got so mad he actually ran out of wrenches, then switched to throwing other stuff and inadvertently cleaned out a whole room. Other tools, chairs, tables, smaller Autobots…" Megatron couldn't hold back his laughter at that image, drawing a smile from her. If they were really both doomed to face Ratchet's wrath at some point in the semi-immediate future, the least they could do was go to their fate smiling and laughing together.

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That should answer a few questions, if anyone had cared to ask them.

Read and review, please!


	2. Face plant

Okay, here's part two. I'm delighted to see that people are reading this.

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The day came and went, as did the evening. Sneaking off the boat went off without a hitch and soon they were on the road again. Sarah rode with Optimus just as she had planned, keeping said plan to herself so he wouldn't feel self-conscious or embarrassed, all the while sneaking glances up at where Megatron flew overhead. Was she imagining how he seemed to waver in midair, how he seemed to be fighting to maintain altitude? She knew she was probably worrying too much, but she couldn't help it. He'd implied heavily that it was all due to simple stress, that he was just hungry and tired after all the things that had happened, but was that really it? For his part, Optimus seemed tired too. So was she, for that matter. And Sam was probably downright exhausted. She sighed inwardly, relaxing. That had to be the answer, so there was nothing to worry about.

The passage of a few more days saw them making their way down the tree-covered slope that led into the narrow valley they had called home back when the war had truly been in full swing. The imposter was dead set on beginning it anew, but with their home fully restored and a new Golden Age in place, this time with old issues resolved, the only planet in any real danger was Earth. Like they had done before, they would stay in the Ark until the job was done, but this time they could call home whenever they liked, for supplies, reinforcements or whatever they needed. Sam, of course, would be staying with them for the duration, since the imposter seemed to have a serious grudge going.

Soon they were in the smallish clearing right in front of the Ark. Letting Sam out, Bumblebee was the first to transform, followed by everyone else. Sarah stepped out into the open and did the same, switching into being Zephyr even as she looked up to watch the silver-winged jet gracefully navigating the narrow canyon walls to reach where the rest stood, cutting thrusters at the last moment in order to glide down to land beside them like a feather riding the wind, transforming and rising from the resulting crouch to walk the last few steps toward them, and Zephyr in particular. She stepped forward in return, reaching out to embrace her beloved mate… only to start in horror as he collapsed into her arms. _"Megatron!" _His added weight drove her to her knees as she refused to just let go of him and let him fall to the ground. Holding him close, pillowed on her bent knees, she looked up in unabashed agitation as Ratchet walked closer, looking peeved beyond all belief. "Care to tell me precisely why he has a breach in his spark chamber? While you're at it, would you also mind explaining the built-up sand and salt disrupting his neural network?" Zephyr was thoroughly fried by that point; so fried, in fact, that she would have been in tears if she had been in human form. "I… I don't know. He said he was fine… said all he needed was energon and a nap… I considered finding you and telling you about this back when we were on the boat, but that would have meant breaking cover, so I kept it to myself…" Ratchet was downright angry, but he decided to keep it to himself since she had a point. Breaking cover was a bad idea no matter what the reason was. Looking over his shoulder, he cast a semi-exasperated gaze toward the far more composed yet secretly equally agitated Autobot leader. "Optimus, help Zephyr carry him to the repair bay. It looks like I've got a bit of work ahead of me." The Autobot leader immediately moved to help her pick up his brother, the two of him lifting up his limp body with comparative ease and carrying it into the Ark. The rest just quietly followed. Not a one of them so much as spoke a single word, fearing to attract Ratchet's attention.

The passage of a few minutes saw the two of them gently lay him down on a bed and make him as comfortable as possible. They barely had enough time to do much of anything else before Ratchet practically shoved them both aside. "I'll take it from here. Both of you go get some rest now. I've got enough work to do getting this big lug back on his feet, so if either of you collapse I'm going to weld you together at the aft, then call everybody else in to point and laugh at you." Optimus did as told, quietly walking off to head for his quarters. Zephyr, however, had different ideas as she walked to the side. "The only place I'm going is that bed over there. That should be out of the way enough for you. I'm out of your way _and_ planning on a long nap, and I get to stay near my mate. Seems to me we both win." Selecting a bed positioned where she could easily see the rest of the room in its entirety, she laid down and prepared for a well-deserved nap of her own. A few minutes later, Ratchet quietly smiled to himself as he heard her begin to snore softly. That was one potential distraction taken care of. Everyone else knew to stay well away, so now there was nothing between him and the task at hand, namely working on fixing up the fallen Decepticon. "Why does it seem like all the dumb stuff happens to _you?_" A breach in the spark chamber wasn't something to take lightly, and he should have been fully aware of it from the start. He should have reported it immediately, but he'd probably been too slagging proud to admit the problem until he collapsed from it. "Were it not for your many years of distinguished service as our Lord High Protector, I would be seriously doubting your intelligence about now." Getting down to business, he began the long, difficult, painstaking work of ridding the spark chamber and all connecting neural circuitry of any and all contaminants. "Ugh, you're really gummed up." The amount of contamination was considerable; more so than he had initially thought. "I take back what I said earlier. You're really not too bright." The Decepticon made no reply, showed no sign of having heard. No, he was in far too deep of a coma for that. "Now I've got to work all night long to get you back to your normal self, and I'll be lucky if it doesn't take any longer than that, which it probably _will_…" He kept growling as more and more filth and grime was extracted from the area around the spark chamber. "No, I take it back _again._ You've got to be the dumbest piece of hardware this universe has ever seen. You're worse than the twins, and they're about as smart as a pile of retarded boulders… and that's their _combined_ intelligence!" Given the amount of contamination he was seeing, it was remarkable that Megatron hadn't collapsed any earlier, like back in Egypt or on the road home. Was it sheer strength that had sustained him this long? His unyielding determination to at least reach home before anything bad happened? Some combination of the two, perhaps? Either way, it promised to be a very long night.

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Anybody got anything they'd like to see happen? Read and review and give me ideas, maybe?


	3. Like a massive stroke

As promised, I have returned, with part three. Assuming anyone cares.

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Zephyr awakened to the chilling feeling of near-total emptiness along the bond with her mate. It wasn't as bad as before, when Ratchet had suppressed it while Megatron was being held captive, but that fact didn't make it any less creepy. She could feel that he was there… that he was alive… but there was nothing else. Nothing at all. Shivering slightly, she sat up on the bed she'd claimed and looked toward where Ratchet was finishing up his work. He'd been working that long? "There must have been more contamination than previously thought," she whispered to herself. Soft as the statement was, Ratchet heard it anyway. "You're darn right on that one. He was practically swimming in it!" She winced upon hearing that. "Ouch. Just… ouch." Ratchet nodded wholeheartedly. "You can say that again. Just don't actually _say_ it again, all right? I've had a long enough day as is." Doing as told, she bypassed the obvious stupid joke as she quietly stood up. "Will he be all right?" He turned to look at her as she walked closer. "He will be, in time. It'll be quite a while before he even wakes up, just so you know. And the problems don't end there." The pause that followed seemed to hang over the room and its occupants like a wet blanket. "His systems have to recalibrate themselves. Until that's done, it'll…" He paused again. "I'll put this in human terms. He's essentially had a massive stroke. He'll need help with a lot of things, things people don't usually need help with. It's temporary, though. A week or two, maybe three, possibly up to a month, and he'll be back to normal. That's not counting however long it takes for him to wake up, though. He will, but I'm not sure when. In short, it'll take a while, but in the end he'll be just fine… except for his pride. That'll take a serious hit, I'm sure." She sighed, then made to ask a question, only to have him anticipate said question and silence her. "And no, you can't use your power to help him. He doesn't need healing or repair, which is all you can offer besides outright resurrection which is _way_ beyond out of the question. He needs _time, _plain and simple. Time to recover, and somebody to help him while he recovers. Preferably someone who won't laugh at him while he's down." At this statement she crossed her arms and gave him the most annoyed look she could manage. "You _really_ think I'd do that to him, don't you." He shook his head. "Not really… not in the slightest. Just be patient with him when he gets frustrated or angry." Her annoyed expression disappeared instantly. "Oh, believe me, I can do that. I've encountered my share of angry people in my time. That and I have a pretty good idea of how to calm him down. …For Primus's sake, don't look at me like that! I didn't mean it _that_ way!" When he didn't say anything, she sighed. "Now _you're_ the one who looks like he needs a nice long nap. Since I'm planning on monitoring the patient myself, you can safely go get some rest. I'll call you if anything goes wrong." He spent a fairly long moment feeling torn between being angry at her for attempting to tell him what to do and being happy that she cared that much about his well-being. "I think I will. Call me if his vital functions so much as waver, or so help me I'll attach your wing panels to your aft. _Both_ of them." With that, he turned and left the room.

After watching him leave, she pulled up a chair to sit at her beloved's bedside. "Mere hours with nothing passing along the bond and already I miss you unbearably. Recover quickly, I beg of you…" She sighed, gently caressing his unresponsive cheek. "Well, _this_ is just freaking great. Our first real free time alone together in almost an entire _month_ and you're 'experiencing technical difficulties'. What a messed-up life we lead!" He didn't seem to feel her touch, nor was he aware of her presence. From what she could tell, he wasn't even dreaming. Leaning in closer, she laid her head against his chest and spent a few long moments just listening to the rhythm of his spark, quietly reassuring herself that he was, in fact, still alive. "Primus, this is just all kinds of creepy. I don't even think there's a word for how creepy this is… in _any_ language, and I'm not just talking about the ones on Earth." Pulling back, she just sat for a few ridiculously long-seeming minutes, listening to his soft, slow breaths and wondering if he was even aware of her presence. If she were to use the bond to speak directly into his mind, would she hear her own words echoing in the darkness? At least he was breathing. That meant there was still hope.

She'd heard the term 'deafening silence' before, many times, but until that moment she had never really gotten to fully experience it, to see how true the expression could be. It was so quiet that she was fairly certain she would be able to hear the slightest sound come from anywhere in the Ark, no matter how small or far off it happened to be. She could hear her own breathing, almost ridiculously loud in the near-total silence, poised in a seemingly delicate counterpoint against the rhythm of her spark, both of these sounds almost but not quite overshadowing the much fainter sound of Megatron's breathing. Closing her eyes, she listened to the world around her, trying to get a sense of what everybody else was doing without resorting to using her powers in order to do so. Listening closely, she could hear Sam snoring, Optimus snoring, the others snoring… She was the only one currently wide awake in the whole base. A quiet sigh escaped her. She'd have thought the rest would have already woken up by that point. It _was_ midmorning, after all. Then again, who could blame any of them, given what the past few weeks had been like? Heck, she envied them for being able to just sit back and relax. For her part, she had a long day ahead of her, just sitting there and waiting for Megatron to wake back up again. She supposed she could easily step out for a while, for a nap, a quick recreational flight, or to go get some energon, maybe… Reaching out to where he slept on, oblivious to absolutely everything, she took his limp hand in her own. "Are you even aware that I'm here, I wonder? Would you notice if I left the room?" She gently rubbed her cheek against the back of his hand, pretending he could feel it. "Can you feel me touching you? Can you hear my voice?" From what Ratchet had said, he could conceivably wake up at any time. Unless she had misunderstood what he was saying, that was. Medical stuff had always confused her, and she wouldn't put it past her tired, worried mind to misinterpret what was being said or had been said to her. He could wake up at any time and she preferred the idea of going stir-crazy over the thought of leaving him behind and risking the very distinct possibility of him waking up all alone while she was out doing something or other.

The others came and visited sometimes. Ratchet came by and checked him often, hourly at least, tracking his slow progress as his systems slowly readjusted after the massive shock they had taken from all that contamination. He was making steady progress, agonizingly slow as it may have been, and she drew comfort from that knowledge. Sam dropped by for an explanation of what had gone wrong, accompanied by Bumblebee, and both of them had winced upon learning how badly the contamination had messed him up internally. The Chopper Sisters had been more concerned about her than him, and she had rejected their offer to go cruising in human form, forestalling an all-out brawl to determine who she would ride with. True to their lack of intellect, the twins had thoroughly misunderstood her explanation and left before she could try to clarify things. Sideswipe had really looked forward to training against someone as big and strong as him, preparing for the inevitable Decepticon retaliation, and left the room thoroughly disappointed, seeking out Ironhide instead. Ironhide had dropped by as well, wondering just what in the heck could cause someone as strong as Megatron to just drop, and left with a greater appreciation for all the work Ratchet did. Jazz had merely peeked into the room without a word before leaving equally silently like the spy he was, worried that he would be intruding on a private moment if he did anything else. Unlike the rest, not counting Ratchet for obvious reasons, Optimus visited frequently. Megatron was his younger brother, after all.

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If you bothered to read this, please leave a review. I'm having a really hard time.


	4. History lesson interlude

Care to guess what movie inspired this?

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A quiet dawn saw Optimus come again, not to visit his brother but to speak to her. "We have a bit of a problem," he said. "We need to fortify the Ark in case of attack, but if we use the space bridge to contact home for supplies, we'll tip the Decepticons off as to our location. The imposter and his crew don't know we're here, since all the Decepticons who fought in the previous war went home, taking the knowledge with them. We could use more weapons, too, and maybe a few more people, but I figure we'd be able to risk having them know where we are if our defenses were good enough. I've asked around among the others, but none of them have any ideas. Now I've come to _you, _Zephyr, since this is your planet. Yours and Sam's, but he told me he has no ideas either. He's hardly a warrior, he says. And he isn't. Aside from the incident in Mission City, and back in Egypt, he's never so much as seen combat. And he didn't actually _fight_ either time. According to him, the only thing he did either time was run for his life. But he told me how _you_ took on the imposter, all by yourself, hand to hand." Looking down for a moment, she gave the matter some very serious thought. "I can't just leave my beloved's side. Maybe after he recovers…" Ratchet stepped up beside her, not pleased with her refusal to go help the others. "The matter of fortifications and defending ourselves is dead serious. We can't just wait for you, or for him. Besides, my scans indicate it'll be a few days yet before he even so much as twitches, much less regains consciousness. I'll be able to tell when he's starting to wake up, as much as half an hour before he begins to show any outward sign. If he does, I'll contact you first thing. All that other stuff aside, just sitting around and waiting isn't doing either of you any good in the slightest. You're needed out there, Zephyr. Much more than you're needed in here." Looking up at Optimus, she flashed him a devilish grin. "Gather everyone together, outside. Looks like it's time for me to give you guys a few lessons in old-school tactics, _human_-style."

The morning fog was just barely lifting from the largely silent trees as Zephyr stepped up to stand in front of her lined-up comrades, Sam included by his own insistence. "All right, ladies and gentlemen, such as you may be, welcome to your first day of 'Ancient Human Warfare 101'!" Predictably, Skids and Mudflap objected. What could a land full of meat sacks with the lifespan of gnats have to teach them? "Humans have been at war with each other pretty much constantly since the day we achieved sentience, for a bunch of petty, foolish reasons your species couldn't possibly hope to comprehend. Needless to say, we've gotten pretty good at it. Heck, it's practically an art form with us, and that's _not_ a fact we're proud of. Conversely, _your_ species is still recovering from its first-ever war. So shut up and prepare to learn from the masters." The revelation of just how violent humans could be stunned a few of them. "Now, as with a whole lot of other parts of human history, the first rule of human warfare is _improvisation, _pure and simple. You use what you have. Don't have what you need? _Make_ what you need!"

Walking to the side, she headed down to the river that had carved out the valley they called home. "Of course, sometimes you don't have to make anything. A sharp eye and a quick mind are often all you need. Mudflap, transform and drive along the riverbank." Seeing an easy assignment, he did so… and promptly had his tires get bogged down in the thick mud, so badly he eventually had to be bodily hauled out. She grinned. "See that, gentlemen? That is _mud_… Plain old garden-variety mud, guaranteed to give anybody driving through it a serious hard time. Mudflap got off lucky, because he was small… and because somebody was there to pull him out. The bigger the vehicle, the harder it is to get out, if the mud is thick enough. Transforming will get you unstuck, but you'll be walking the rest of the way… slow as heck. We can use this against the Decepticons, should they come down here. It'll slow them down, if not stop them entirely. The best part about mud is that it's easy to find. Gentlemen, look at what you're standing on… at what's all around you. Dirt. Several feet of ordinary dirt. Add enough water and you've got some mud. Depending on how much water you add, you can make said mud as thick and gooey as you please. With the river providing all the water we need for this little trick, we have a ready-made Decepticon trap, just waiting for us to decide when and where to use it." She walked over to the edge of the mud field, the boundary between regular dirt and the thick mud, then crouched down and scooped up some of the mud. "Here's another way mud can possibly be useful." She began to smear it up and down her arm, much to the utter surprise of everyone watching. "Now, if you want to use this trick, make sure you watch where you put the mud, and how thickly you apply it." Once she had applied a coating of mud thick enough to obscure the true color of her armor and the luminous traceries that adorned it, she stood back up and turned to them. "Now, tell me. Does my arm show up on any of your scans?" Mass confusion took hold as the lot of them, save, of course, for Sam, realized that all non-visual scans refused to register her mud-covered arm. It was as if she had lost her arm and was standing before them crippled. "I didn't think so. You see, there's something about the composition of mud, maybe the water dissolved into it, maybe all the organic compounds, that refracts scanning beams. So if I was completely coated with mud, a Decepticon could walk right by me and, unless they were looking right _at_ me, they wouldn't even know I was there." She raised her arms high, letting little blobs of mud fall all around. "I could sneak up _right_ behind them, careful not to be heard, and they would have no idea at all. So respect the mud, all right? Respect it, I say!"

Returning to her previous position, she crouched down again and dug her claws into the dirt. "Next up, Mother Nature's gift to the inventive. Ladies and gents, I give you…" She pulled out a good-sized stone and held it up for them to see. "An ordinary rock. Doesn't look like much, does it? And it isn't… Not on its own, anyway. But get enough of them and line a narrow path with them as loosely as possible, preferably a path next to a big cliff… Then you've got a recipe for massive slipping and sliding, and quite possibly a Decepticon falling off a cliff. Of course, you could always just _throw_ them…" She shrugged. "I know rocks aren't going to be much use against the super-strong alloys that make up Decepticon armor, but at the speed _we_ can throw them… A dent or two should slow them down some, especially if you aim for the head. Of course, a slingshot using one of these babies may work even better." Crouching down again and digging around some more, she pulled out a second rock. "See this kind of rock here? See how it's different from the first one? It's called flint. Now watch closely." Striking the second rock with the first, she made it splinter into several sharp-edged pieces of a size appropriate for beings of her type. She then held the pieces out for the others to take. "Hold onto these for our next lesson, and remember this kind of rock for if you ever end up needing to make some of these yourself. They go very well with what I'm about to teach you."

Her next stop was the forest. "Of course, you won't always find potential weapons on the ground, or in the ground… Sometimes they grow _out_ of the ground. These should be used sparingly at most…" Choosing a dead branch of appropriate size, she broke it off the dying tree it had been part of and hefted it for all of them to see. "Look! Look at me, at this spear I've just made!" She extended the broken end out toward them, showing them all the splinters. "Aim _this_ at the gap between armor plates and I can guarantee you that your target will be picking splinters out of his aft for weeks. Or, for some added 'fun'…" She quickly took back one of the pieces of broken rock she'd made mere moments before. "…tip it with one of _these_ and aim for a sensitive area." She paused. "When making one of these, make sure you only use a branch that's already dead! The tree you're taking from can stand to lose a dead branch or two, and they break a lot easier than living branches. The splinters are bigger, too. And here's the best part about dead, dry wood… Ironhide, please charge your cannon." He did so, and she touched the tip of the branch to the barrel. It instantly ignited. "Look at how it burns! All we need is some flammable, slow-burning resin to tip our spears with. Imagine having somebody swinging a burning stick at your head! You'd duck in a hurry, wouldn't you? Any sane Decepticon would do the same in a minute, I'm sure. For a variation, you could always just dump the resin on your target, ignite it and watch him panic. I don't know how much actual damage the fire would do, but a panicking enemy is an easier target than one that's ready for a full-on brawl." She paused. "A word of caution, though. We want to keep the use of fire to a minimum. The whole forest is flammable, so be very careful if you use fire. We have plenty of water on hand, which is good, but the best way to deal with a forest fire is to keep it from happening in the first place. So fire is a last resort at best, got it?" Heading back to the river, she extinguished the fire on the stick she still held. "But I've spent too much time on how to use things for weapons. I guess that's just the human in me, wanting to stand and fight rather than hide from the enemy. Let's get back to how to use this stuff to protect ourselves and our home, shall we?"

She returned to the forest, heading for the trail that was the only remotely reliable entry point to the valley. "See all these trees lining this narrow little road, which is pretty much the only way into the valley? See all the branches pointing inward? We can sharpen the branches so they tear at the armor of any Decepticon who dares to enter by this path, then find a way to hold these branches up higher so we can pass through whenever we please, then drop them down to repel any intruders. We can line the road itself with wooden spikes to pierce their tires… we will find a way to make these spikes lie flat when we pass by, then raise them if we wish. I have no idea how we will do these things, but I know we'll find a way. We're inventive like that, you know? And if they make it down the trail, they will find a grove of sharpened spikes waiting to pierce them should they come closer… and warriors waiting should they pass the spikes!"

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What do I have to do to get people to review this, huh? Any suggestions? Anything?


	5. Waking up

I made a mistake in my last chapter, ending it a paragraph early. The first paragraph in this installment should have been the last paragraph in the previous installment.

For crying out loud, what do I have to do to get people to review this?

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Making a quick stop to wash the mud off her arm and the rest of her too, she returned to the repair bay to continue watching over her fallen mate. "No change," Ratchet said as she entered, preempting the question she had been about to ask. She just sighed, seeing no reason to say anything in reply as she took her usual seat next to the bed where Megatron still lay. The vigil began again with no fanfare, watching him sleep, speaking words he couldn't hope to hear, visitors popping in and out in a vain attempt to raise her spirits… She greeted them all politely with smiles and reassurances, only to shoo them all away first chance she got, Ratchet included. It wasn't as if she didn't appreciate the sentiment or their attempts to make her feel better, after all. The truth was that the only one who could really hope to raise her spirits hadn't recovered yet. They hadn't realized that he was so far gone as to have left her bond to him empty. That was hardly healthy, or good for her mental state, so it made sense that his recovery was the only thing that could help.

It was a major credit to her persistence that she was the first one to notice when the limp body gave a slight twitch. "…Megatron?" A soft, sleepy murmur was all the reply she got, but it was enough for her. Reaching out, she caressed his cheek and felt her spark soar as he leaned ever so slightly into her gentle touch with a pleased sigh. Casting a quick glance over her shoulder, she called out for Ratchet to come before turning her attention back to the only person who mattered to her at the moment. Leaning over him, she made sure that she would be the first thing he saw upon opening his eyes even as he began to do so. It took a few seconds for him to focus on her, and the smile that took shape on his face when he did so could only be described as radiant. "Zephyr," he whispered feebly. She just nodded, not trusting herself to speak lest she burst into tears of relieved joy because she could _feel_ him again, life and light passing along the bond that had been silent for so long. His weak smile faded into a look of confused horror as his attempts to say more failed miserably, just like his attempts to sit up. Unable to speak again, he reached out to her along their bond. //'Zephyr, I… I can't move.'// She trembled, a swift cascade of various emotions making its way across her face. A moment later the repair bay resounded with a noise very like that of a gong being struck as she dealt him a slap powerful enough to leave his head ringing. "Why didn't you _tell_ me you had a breach in your spark chamber? I could have fixed _that; _could have saved everybody so much trouble!" A moment later she was hugging him, almost weeping as she released her previously pent-up emotions. "Don't ever do that again, okay? I thought poor Optimus was going to blow a fuse, he was so worried about you." She buried her face against his chest, her next words no more than a soft little murmur. "And me too…" He smiled weakly, savoring her presence and her touch, trembling slightly at the effort he was putting into his attempt to move. He dearly wanted to return the embrace, to pull her just a little bit closer and kiss her with all the tender ferocity he could still muster in his drastically weakened state… _"Quit. Squirming. Now." _

Recognizing that unmistakable voice, he immediately quit trying to move and stared with wide eyes at where Ratchet now stood over him where he lay, scowling down like an irate thundercloud. "You're the dumbest pile of scrap in the whole universe, letting your spark chamber get contaminated that badly. Forget maintaining cover! If you've got a breach in your spark chamber, you report it, you hear me? You report it or I swear I'll weld both your hands to your pelvic plate so you look like you're doing what the humans refer to as the 'pee-pee dance', you got that?" It was all Megatron could do to nod ever so slightly, but he did. Satisfied, Ratchet backed off a little bit. "The reason you can't move, if you're wondering, is because the contamination pretty much scrambled your systems. …Oh, don't give me that look, you'll be fine in a month or so, and you've got Zephyr to help you in the meantime." He paid no heed to the look of growing horror on his patient's face as he spoke, as the realization of just what was wrong came to him fully. He wasn't aware of the shiver that ran along his paralyzed, useless frame until Zephyr raised her head and looked at him with a dead seriousness he had never seen from her before. "Count your blessings, Megatron. You only have to put up with this for a month, and the bond lets us talk in the meantime. When this sort of thing happens to a human, it takes years to recover from, and the recovery, when it finally comes, is _never_ full. There's always some sort of lingering aftereffect, something that follows the victim for the rest of their days." She abruptly smiled. "But that's not how it's going to be with you. _You're_ going to make a full recovery in just a single month and go back to normal, as if this never happened." That wasn't what concerned him, though he would never admit it. He would recover in a month or so, sure, but no one who saw him in that state would ever be able to look at him the same way again. This wasn't how he wanted people to see him, even if it _was_ for just a month! He was supposed to be proud and strong, needing no one's help or pity, not incapacitated to the point of total paralysis and needing help to perform even the simplest tasks! As she always seemed to do when he was in that emotional state, Zephyr read his thoughts. "Nobody's going to care, Megatron. Nobody thinks any less of Optimus after what happened to him, and he was freaking _dead! _It doesn't get any worse than that, and everybody still treats him the same as they always did!" He refused to be calmed at first, at least until she spoke up again. "Besides, I'm going to be with you the whole time. If somebody so much as blinks at you wrong I'll rearrange their face, and I _don't_ mean using my power. The All Spark based my overall design off yours, giving me the same sheer, raw power you possess, so I think they would think twice if it crossed their minds, but I doubt it will in the first place." Both of them knew it wouldn't come to that, but he had to admit he appreciated the sentiment behind the offer.

"…On a completely unrelated note, I can easily imagine that you're pretty hungry right now, after how long you were out. Would you like some energon?" He managed a faint nod, though the effort took all his strength. He wasn't sure how much time had passed since his initial collapse, but it had obviously been long enough to freak everyone out and more than long enough for him to need energon. "All right, then. I'll go get some." As could easily be expected in his current situation, all he could do was lie still and wait for her to come back. Though he couldn't really move his head much, he could move his eyes, so that was what he did, looking at as much of the repair bay as he could in a combination of sheer boredom, familiarizing himself with his current surroundings and seeing who he might have to pound later. He could see Ratchet off to the side, just quietly milling around and minding his own business, glancing back at him every few seconds to make sure he was really all right and not about to suffer another complication of any sort. That was all right, he supposed. No need to beat the slag out of _him_ of all people. The repair bay was his domain, after all. He also knew that people usually stayed well away from the repair bay unless it was both urgent and unavoidable, due to the fact that Ratchet had no patience with injuries that could have just as easily been avoided had the patient in question been a little smarter. Such injuries were always met with angry lectures, loud cursing and many thrown objects, and he knew it. Oh, he knew he was in for it later, once he got better… But that was likely quite a ways off yet, so he could worry about it later.

"And here I am again!" He inclined his head toward her and managed a smile as she walked closer, energon in hand. Standing next to him, she paused as their eyes met… then looked between him and the energon she carried. "One question… How are we going to do this?" Ratchet glared at her from across the room. In his mind, it wasn't like the question really needed to be asked. There was really only one way to go about doing it, and they both knew it. Megatron would just have to swallow his pride yet again and let her feed it to him. Giving an exasperated sigh, he nodded his understanding and turned around to face the other way so the two would have some privacy. Perhaps that would soothe Megatron's already seriously wounded pride and make it easier for him to accept her help. As he turned away from them, Zephyr turned away from him as well, looking over at where her mate still lay, uncertain what to do next. "Will you allow me?" He gave a quiet nod and a wan smile in response, indicating that he would indeed let her. Saying no more, she took a seat on the edge of the bed he was lying in, placing the energon on a conveniently placed bedside table that had previously been used by Ratchet as a place to set his tools down as he scanned the patient during his coma. He managed to scoot a little closer, giving her another wan little smile. Looking him over, she smiled back. "See? You're getting better already. A few minutes ago you couldn't do that." Catching a quick flash of movement out of the corner of her eye, she caught Ratchet turning to look in order to verify her claim, then shot him a quick death glare that had him turning to face away again in less than a second. Reaching down, she looped one arm around his shoulders and raised him up, supporting his weight by letting him lean up against her. Picking the energon back up, she held it up so he could drink. He didn't trust himself with anything more than small, slow sips, so finishing the whole container promised to take a bit of time. Neither minded, however, since this was technically the first real relaxation time they'd had since before the whole mess started with the Fallen and the imposter. When it was done he just nestled in her arms, much as he had seen Galvie do in the past, savoring her touch and her nearness, and the sheer peacefulness of the moment.

That was when Ratchet, ever the master of interrupting at precisely the wrong time, reentered the proverbial picture. "Now, now, Zephyr, he needs his rest. Being in a coma isn't the same as sleeping. The wear and tear on the body is the same as being wide awake the whole time." Rather than arguing, she gently eased her mate back down onto his bed… or tried to, anyway. Megatron, for his part, was hardly happy about Ratchet's orders, and somehow managed to find the strength to reach out to grab on to Zephyr. By chance or by a practical joke on Fate's part, his hand landed on her chest plate, grasping the armor over her spark chamber. She froze as her eyes went wide, and in that moment Ratchet could swear to seeing an actual exclamation point form over her head as every leftover instinct in her formerly human body screamed that she had just been groped. A moment later, she looked at him with slightly narrowed eyes. "You're lucky you're my mate. Otherwise there would be a whole lot of slapping going on about now." Getting the message, he let go and just let her help him back down. Having seen the whole thing and knowing better than to actually _say_ anything about it, Ratchet managed a stiff nod. "You're recovering a lot faster than I expected. At this rate you'll be up and around in a few days." Zephyr looked up at him quietly, making a note of how twitchy he seemed. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll just go over here for a while…" Turning on his heel, he exited the repair bay. No sooner had the door closed behind him than the two heard him break out laughing his head off. Megatron looked up at Zephyr. //'This is the first time I've ever heard him laugh like that…'// Rather than use the bond they shared as he had done, she chose to speak aloud. "I doubt he'll be laughing once _I'm_ done with him." He shook his head gently. //'Leave him be. I doubt he was laughing at what I grabbed _or_ where. Embarrassing or not, the look on your face was priceless.'// Reaching out along the bond, he sent her an image of her own surprised face. A moment later she found herself laughing just as hard as Ratchet had. "Oh man, I looked like my eyes were going to fall right out of my head!" A soft chuckle escaped him as well. //'Indeed you did.'//

Suddenly he found himself yawning, a habit he had picked up from her. //'Ratchet was right, I _am_ tired. Perhaps I had best go to sleep after all.'// She nodded. "Sounds like a good idea to me. For my part, I'm not sure what to do with myself." Looking up at her sleepily, he thought for a long moment. //'…Go tell Optimus that I'm well on my way to getting better, then go spend some time outside. If I know you half as well as I think I do, I'll bet you haven't so much as taken two steps outside without having been forced to.'// Zephyr spent a moment almost wishing she could still blush like a human in her true form. "…I'd say you know me entirely too well, then, because I haven't. I didn't want to take the risk of having you wake up from your coma and find yourself alone." He almost permitted himself a small smirk at the even smaller victory, but thought better of it. //'But I'm awake _now_, aren't I? Sleeping or not, I'll still be able to feel that you are out there and that's good enough for me if you're still worried about that.'// A soft sigh escaped her. "Fine, if that's what you want of me. But I'm staying right here until you fall asleep." It never even crossed his mind that she was acting like he was a child, watching over him to make sure he did in fact go to sleep. Tired as he was, it was enough for him that she was there. Curling up just a little under the blanket he had been given, he let out a soft, contented sigh and conked right out. Upon watching him fall asleep, she just stayed put and watched him for a long moment, marveling at how peaceful he looked before getting up as gently and carefully as she could, so as not to disturb him. He had asked her to do something, so she would do exactly that. It was time to go talk to Optimus.

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I am considering canceling this story due to an apparent lack of interest. Reviews are how I can tell that people are actually reading the story, not just clicking the link by mistake.


	6. 21 questions with the Primes

I finally got let out of the frickin' hospital. Did anybody miss me? Did anybody even notice my absence? Anybody?

This chapter is short on action and is mostly talk, but its main purpose is to take care of some of the plot holes from ROTF and explain some stuff.

Credit goes to Cyndi's fic 'Lines' for a certain part…

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She knocked on the door to his office rather than ringing the door chime, a habit left over from her human life that alerted Optimus to the fact that it was her even before the door opened. She returned his polite greeting as she stepped into the room. Looking around the room she had just entered, she just had to pause at what she saw. Optimus was seated behind what had to be the biggest desk she had ever seen in her life, and for a moment she imagined him as the CEO of some large company, supervising his workers. The thought almost made her giggle, but she managed not to. He spoke up first. "Given the fact that you're here without Ratchet or me having to force you, I'm guessing you have some good news for me." She smiled radiantly, strikingly beautiful for someone who shared the same basic design as his brother. He knew that if he dwelt on that paradox… someone who bore such a resemblance to his brother but was actually quite attractive… he would end up in a systems shutdown that would lead to many thrown objects from Ratchet and likely an equal number of dents on his part. He was somewhat thankful for the interruption when she nodded. "Indeed I do. Megatron has come out of his coma and is recovering a lot faster than Ratchet initially predicted. He's finally getting some decent rest now… Being in a coma has essentially the same effects on a body as being wide awake, so after this much time without proper sleep he could really use the rest."

She would have said more, but something caught her attention… and his as well. She hadn't really noticed the key sitting on his desk like the world's weirdest paperweight until that moment, when the blue jewel at its core began to shine with a pale light that Optimus couldn't help but notice perfectly matched both her eyes and the traceries that covered her. Almost taking her eyes off it but not quite, seemingly unable to, she gave him a sort of sideways look. "Optimus, did you ever, over the course of your life, find yourself in a situation where you felt as though you were supposed to do something? I don't mean feeling like something is the right thing to do… I'm talking about feeling like something inside you… or outside you, I don't really know for sure… is telling you what your next action should be?" He thought for a long moment, recalling various occurrences throughout his long life, both before and during the war. "I suppose sending the All Spark into space counted… although I wouldn't put it past the All Spark itself to put the idea into my head, given what we now know about our home planet. Why in the world would you ask such an odd question of me now?" Her answer came without delay, and once again without so much as a glance in his direction. "Because I'm getting that feeling right now, and it's telling me to pick up the key." He shrugged, a habit he had picked up from observing both her and Sam. "Then you should do just that, I suppose. If my experience is any indication, such feelings happen for a good reason." Reaching out, she hesitated to touch it. It had crumbled to dust the last time she had tried, responding only to Sam's courage, not hers. Seemingly responding to her thoughts, it flared brighter for a moment in seeming encouragement and perhaps a little impatience. Finally touching it, taking it into her hand, a brilliant flash of light flooded her mind, down to her spark…

The first thing she noticed was that she was in her human form. Looking around, she found herself standing atop a wide open plain illuminated by the pale golden light of the earliest dawn as twelve tall, slender beings slowly, gracefully approached from all sides, seemingly just materializing out of the light. "Just like Sam described it…" The feeling of utter smallness was the same as the description as well, just like the aura of ancient wisdom that surrounded each and every one of the figures as they crouched down to get closer to her level. "Sarah…" All thought of analyzing the situation left her mind now that she was actually _in_ the situation. "As a citizen of the world that very nearly met its end due to our ancient folly, we have called you here before us so that we may explain the actions of our wayward brother as best we can. It is due to your status as the living incarnation of the All Spark, the life force of our children and the world we once dreamed of calling home, that we are able to do this. We can speak to you and no other. Ask your questions and we shall answer them." She fidgeted like a naughty schoolchild sent to the principal's office at the fact that they would actually deign to speak to her and not Optimus, their descendant. Still, the fact that they had limited options made their decision to speak to her over anyone else make more than just a little bit of sense.

"For one thing, why am I in my human form? If your being able to speak to me now is because of the All Spark's presence in me, shouldn't I be wearing the form it gave me?" The many-in-one voice of the Dynasty washed over her like an ocean of sound as her question was answered. "It is your essence that stands before us now, not your body. No matter what form the All Spark may give you, your heart will always be human." That made sense. No matter what happened or how much time passed, she knew she would always remain Sarah Hornsby. The day she lost that would be the day she would, in her mind, become completely unworthy to bear the All Spark's power within her.

"Another question, then. Why uplift only one of your children to become like you, in that he could fight the one now called the Fallen? Why only one descendant? It seems kind of foolish to place all your trust in just one single person. What if something were to happen? Something _did_ happen, as a matter of fact. We were all very nearly doomed due to that imposter!" All twelve looked down in shame. "Too late did we realize our error. We had no knowledge that our wayward brother could create Seekers on his own, without the All Spark's power. When we made our choice, it was with the belief that the foe would simply be our brother and no one else. By the time we realized he was not alone, that he could do such things as spawn warriors to fight at his side, our world and our descendant were both far behind us." That made sense too, so she couldn't blame them for the mistake, even though she got the definite feeling that they blamed themselves more than enough to cover her lack. How were they to have known what he could do?

"He was here the whole time. The All Spark was here for a dreadfully long time too, just sitting out in the open. Rather than wait for somebody to find the key, why did he not simply go after it?" That had been her main question ever since she learned about the Fallen and his master plan. "Unlike our children and unlike yourself, our ability to use the All Spark was limited at best. We could reshape worlds, true, and create our children, but we were restrained by the need for materials for them to be fashioned from. For most of this world's history, the materials needed, such as refined metals and technology of appropriate sophistication, simply did not exist. By the time they came into being, it was too late for him to simply go and claim it, for your people had already done so. Mighty as he was, the fortifications your people created to protect it were mightier. Even if it were not so, he likely would never have thought to try. Ancient as he was, he was set in his ways of thinking. His mind was set on his original plan, to obtain the key and use it." She'd known plenty of people like that, people who were so single-minded that they wouldn't recognize an alternative course of action if it walked up and bit them in the face.

"The All Spark drifted in space for eons, and all the while your chase went on. Eventually it ended up here, on the very world where you chose to make your stand. Given how huge space is, doesn't that seem a little bit too unlikely to be a coincidence?" Something deep down inside her gave her a feeling what the answer might be, but she wanted to hear it from them. "It was drawn here. Free of its moorings on the world it once called home, it was drawn like a magnet to the key that was meant to give it power. We hid the key after our hard-won victory, but by that time the All Spark's course to this world was already set. And once a course is set, what way is there to change it?" Their mentioning of their sacrifice gave her an immediate follow-up question. "With him defeated after the battle you faced, why did you not simply leave him here and head for home? You won! You didn't have to do _this_ to yourselves… didn't have to _die_…" The ocean of voices took on a note of sorrow that would have moved the hardest of hearts. "There was no way to return home, not with so few of us surviving. It took the combined efforts of many more than just us to bridge the gap between stars… and that was in better times, when none of us were battle-weary or injured. We would have surely perished anyway, injured as we were, our consciousnesses lost to time had we not done this. Binding our sparks to the key as we have done, we are immortal. When we lived, each of us had a limited ability to see the future of the things and people around us. Coming here, to this world, we saw the war that would come, saw that our brother would rise again, and realized we would be needed. We had no choice; the choice was made for us." She had heard much the same words from Sam. He would have much preferred to live out his life in perfect anonymity, just another human in a world full of humans, unaware of the war being fought on Earth's doorstep. Instead he had to hide hundreds of miles away from his own species, among a bunch of mechanical aliens, because the accidental reincarnation of a former villain who hadn't really died at all had gotten it into his less-than-sane head that he had to die, simply because he had acted in self defense. She supposed that the same could be said about her, technically being said maniac's long-sought prize, but she had no regrets about any of that. She had found true love, the kind spoken of in fairy tales and sometimes the romantic dreams of the young, and in her mind that was worth pretty much anything. And the ability to transform into a jet and fly whenever she pleased sure didn't hurt.

"Why here… why us? You had your pick of a thousand worlds on which to make your stand, so why choose this one?" That was the question that had plagued both her and Sam the most. Why did the war have to come to their world? "Our ability to sense the future drew us here. When we came upon this world, we knew on sight that it would figure greatly into the future of our children, it would save them, but only if the All Spark's course drew it there. When we made our stand, we knew only that something about the planet would save our children from themselves and each other. We had no way of knowing the specifics, such as precisely what it would be. When a troop of apes tried to take on our brother with thrown stones and crudely fashioned spears, we got our answer. He had cornered our leader with intent to kill, and the apes rose up as one to end what they must have seen as a clash between two gods. The distraction angered our brother, distracting him from a clean kill and he retreated, unwilling to bother with such small things as his cruel quest continued. One of the apes was brave enough to approach the…"

Incredibly, the ocean of voices fragmented as one of the twelve broke ranks with the rest. His voice, when he spoke, hummed with raw, untested strength, and Sarah's heart ached when she realized that he had died very young. "The story belongs to our leader, brothers. He alone has the right to tell it." At first she had been unable to tell them apart, but as the single-minded unity fragmented into twelve minds to fit the twelve forms crouched down around her, she began to be able to tell them apart. One among them looked older than the rest, more venerable if that was even possible given the aura they all seemed to project without meaning to. "Very well. As you say, the story is mine." Now more than ever, she felt as if she was standing before a god and she found herself having to resist the urge to kneel before him. "The Fallen, as we took to calling him, had broken me utterly. As I stared up at the heavens, I knew my time was short. The apes… The apes had bought me a little time, and with that time I prayed to see the others again, one last time. The touch of tiny hands distracted me, and I saw the apes all gathered round. They were trying to help me… My ability to see the future awakened within me in that moment, and their biological nature allowed me to see their descendants, and the species they would become. I saw Samuel destroy the All Spark's first form, and I saw _you. _It was then that I knew that we had done the right thing in coming to this world…" Sarah nodded as she realized she had no more questions in need of answering. The moment she realized this, the twelve figures began to fade as if realizing it too. She was waking up…

* * *

Could I get some reviews here? What should I do next? I have no ideas except for 'Shatterspark' and it's going to be a dreadfully long time until the next movie…


	7. Author's plea for help

Hi, everyone who reads my stuff! Sorry I haven't updated in forever and a half, but I'm running way low on ideas on how to bridge the gap between Revenge of the Fallen and whatever the next movie is going to be called. As loyal readers already know, I already had Galvatron and Unicron appear in the gap between the 2007 movie and Revenge of the Fallen. I don't know what to do next, and there's still a whole year to go before the new movie comes out!

I do, however, have a few ideas for storylines to use in the meantime. I'll list them in two places… Here and in a poll on my author profile. Either vote there or leave a review here, okay?

1. As it turns out, Unicron was the one behind the Fallen's change of heart and his betrayal. In order to keep Unicron from resurrecting him as a full-fledged servant, Zephyr resurrects him herself… as a little baby sparkling. Galvie gets a little brother!

2. Sarah's decision to use her power to save a military plane from crashing leads to the birth of Silverbolt.

3. Sarah sneaks into a military think tank to sneak the humans the blueprints for a starship engine.

4. The false Megatron rallies whatever Decepticons may remain on Earth in preparation for a new war.


	8. A look into the past

Sorry about how long this update took, if anyone cares.

Waking up to see Optimus watching her like a hawk, she explained everything she had seen and heard, her encounter with the Twelve and the questions they had answered for her, before quickly excusing herself to return to the repair bay and her beloved's side. He had wanted her to spend some time outside, but in her mind her encounter with the spirits dwelling within the key qualified as exactly that. She'd been outside, after all… outside her body, that was. She hadn't bothered to ask how much time had passed, because that hadn't mattered much to her. It had been enough time for her to begin worrying again.

She could hear soft, distressed cries even before she stepped into the repair bay, leading her to move more quickly as she opened the door. Looking around, she could see that Megatron had turned onto his side and was trembling violently, having kicked off the blanket he had been given. He was having a nightmare. "No… no…" She immediately moved to his side, listening to his heartbroken sobs as he dreamed of obviously horrible things. Carefully sitting on the edge of the bed, she reached out to stroke his shivering back, between his wing panels, a move she knew would likely awaken him but certainly calm him. Their time together had enabled her to learn his proverbial weak points; where to touch to soothe, or to arouse… Awakening with a gasp, he looked up at her with wide eyes for a long moment before grabbing hold and clinging tightly, pulling her closer with all his diminished strength so he could bury his face against her shoulder and weep at the horrors his mind had conjured up. /'The Fallen killed Optimus and then everybody else and the imposter was _raping_ you and… and…'/ Shushing him softly, she helped him sit up so they would both be in a less awkward situation before continuing to stroke his back. "It's all right… it was just a dream. The Fallen is dead and will trouble us no longer. The imposter stands no chance against the lot of us together. We won the last war, and without you on the opposite side it barely counted, to hear the others tell it. Given how utterly insane the imposter is, this one will probably end up not counting as all that much either." The two were alone together for the moment, so he felt no concern for his dignity as he let out a wholehearted whimper that surprised her. He'd lived through so much and seen so many things that the very thought of anything rattling him this badly was a huge surprise in and of itself. Still, it made a lot of sense. Dreams were the one place where even the most experienced or jaded were as vulnerable as children, and she had to admit that he was acting an awful lot like Galvie in that moment, shivering in her arms and refusing to let go for any reason. "Don't worry, I'm not going _anywhere,_" she said as she shifted in his arms to lie down beside him, not once breaking his grip on her and continuing to stroke his back all the while. _Three_… _Two_… _One_… Pulling her just a little bit closer, he laid his head against her shoulder and sighed softly, then yawned. _Right on schedule, _she thought to herself with a wry smile no one could see. Stroking his back like she was doing always had the exact same result. It didn't just calm him down. If she did it long enough, he would eventually be lulled right to sleep, no matter where he was at the time. And knowing him, even sleep wouldn't relax the grip he had on her, meaning she would just have to stay right there until he woke up again so she could get him to let go. But that was fine by her. She needed a nap anyway, after her little escapade with the key.

No one was present to see Zephyr's power turn on her, just as it had done the day Unicron menaced their world, to give her insight into how to defeat him. This was the way in which Primus, also known as the All Spark's true essence, spoke to her. As was usually the case when such occurred, very few actual words were used. The message consisted of primarily images and feelings, with snippets of remembered conversations from the past, a past that wasn't hers. She had spoken to the Twelve before, and now she saw them again; them and many more like them, but the visions focused on one in particular… the Fallen. Surprise filled her at the realization of who she was seeing, and doubled as she continued to watch him. What she was seeing had to be from before he turned against the rest, because what she saw was nothing like her short experience with him in Egypt. He was kind, gentle yet fiercely devoted to his kindred and to pursuing life along a more scholarly bent at first, before the transition to this universe forced the lot of them to devote their time to re-powering the All Spark. The zeal with which he had pursued his studies had then gone toward fulfilling that mission as a logical extension of the first. His studies had been to preserve the history of his species no matter where they roamed, and the mission to re-power the All Spark was to preserve the species itself, for its power was the very life force of their kind. Without it, whatever world they chose as home could never be reshaped into a place where they could live, and no children could be born. In his mind, the connection was undeniable. The resolution to skip over worlds with even the most basic organic life had been a mere inconvenience at first… Zephyr bore witness to an intrusion into his mind and immediately recognized the work of Unicron, twisting thoughts and emotions on a level so basic as to be completely undetectable to the chosen victim, reshaping what had previously been nothing more than an inconvenience into something utterly intolerable, warping his mind and planting the seeds of a bloody rebellion.

As Zephyr watched this, she felt a presence in her mind and recognized it as her mate, who was sleeping beside her at that very moment and had been drawn by sheer proximity into her not-quite-dreams. She could feel his confusion at what was going on, and the fact that he found her presence reassuring. The visions of the past rose up within her before she could finish the thought and tell him that she was just as confused as he was.

The Fallen had never really understood why his brothers had rejected him, or why they hadn't understood his line of thinking, never realizing that said line of thinking had been drastically warped by outside forces beyond his comprehension. He had mourned the loss of his true name, and clung to the epithet he had been given as his last link to his former kin. In the wake of being defeated and cast out, and the sacrifice made by the last of his brothers to hide his prize from him, he had wandered the planet utterly alone for a great many centuries… Aging and starving, more than a little mad from loneliness, with only the distorted thoughts in his mind to cling to, he had sensed the awakening of the imposter and gone to enlist him, promising anything he could. Failing in the end, abandoned yet again just like his brothers had done before, he had perished at Optimus's hand.

At that moment, a revelation came to her. Unicron had tainted his mind, but not his spark… but he would soon do just that unless something was done. Unicron would take his bodiless spark and resurrect him as a twisted servant, with no real will save that of his master. Starscream had been the same, though he hadn't known it. He had thought he was serving of his own free will, but in reality he had been no more than a puppet. She couldn't in good conscience allow that to happen to another, even a semi-innocent who had been manipulated into becoming a monster. And the thought of depriving Unicron of a possible servant just served to sweeten the deal. She could tell without a doubt that Megatron agreed wholeheartedly. However, it immediately became obvious to her that there was really only one way to do that, to put the Fallen's spark beyond Unicron's reach. That would be to use her power, to give him a new body and a new life… to pretty much reincarnate him. To simply bring him back to life would be beyond insane, so much so that it was out of the question. She didn't even consider it. No, she had a _much_ better idea in mind, one she was sure Optimus would eventually decide he was all right with…

Not sure how long until the next one, since I'm having problems galore nowadays.


	9. The Risen?

Here's another update, and something you probably never expected to see…

Zephyr and Megatron awakened as one to see a largish ball of blue light taking shape right above her chest, a fairly tiny silhouette tucked away at its core. "I had a feeling this would happen… But I didn't expect it to happen this soon," Zephyr whispered, not really sure why she was whispering when there was no one there to hear her. Something small and light came to rest on top of her chest as the light began to fade… a soft gasp escaped her as she felt little hands grasp her chest armor. The light disappeared completely and both of them found themselves staring at a perfect little miniature of the one they had been dreaming about. Red stripes adorned a small body, birdlike legs drawn up against a narrow chest as slender hands kept a light grip on her chest armor. The harsh contours of the adult's face and form were quite a bit duller in that of the child, giving the impression of a newborn baby's chubbiness. The brilliant red eyes that had glared with hatred and utter contempt from the face of the adult were wide and bright in the newborn, holding only innocent curiosity… and quite a bit of confusion. This wasn't where he'd been before… He had no idea where he'd been before, but he at least knew this place wasn't it.

Zephyr wasn't able to resist the urge to sit up a moment longer, displacing the child onto her lap with an indignant squeak. A moment later she grasped the child under the arms and held him up for a better look, prompting a protesting chatter and a bit of unhappy wriggling. "Ah, he looks like a little tiger!" Zephyr exclaimed, commenting on his stripes. The little one kicked a bit, squeaking his discomfort and unhappiness at his current position, drawing her attention to the sharp claws on his little feet. "…With feet like a dinosaur, no less. I'll bet you could do some real damage just by kicking, little guy."

Stirring slightly beside her, Megatron managed to sit up as well, leaning heavily against the pillow he had been lying on previously. Pulling the child closer to cradle him against her chest, which turned out to be exactly what the little one wanted, she turned to face her mate with a smile. "See? You're recovering very nicely. Think you can manage to talk out loud now?" Smiling back, he managed a low, wavering whisper. "Guess this means we have two children." She wrapped one arm around his shoulders, bringing the child in her arms a little closer to him. "Indeed we do. After what he's been through, being manipulated and driven pretty much insane, then losing his brothers and spending eons alone, he at least deserves to have a loving family." Turning to the little one, she said softly, "Look, here's your daddy…" The child blinked shyly up at Megatron as the silver former Decepticon gave his newborn 'son' a gentle, reassuring smile… then smiled back.

"He needs a name," Zephyr said. "We can't keep calling him by his old name, since that wasn't really a name at all. It was more of a cross between an insult and a swear word, with a little bit of a curse thrown in." The child abruptly turned to face her the minute she said that, staring up at her face with a quiet, pleading intensity no normal child would ever demonstrate. "…Ah, I see. The unconventional manner of his rebirth must have left a few memory imprints behind." The lightest touch of her power let her see the likeliest form those imprints could end up taking. "He'll likely be fascinated by stars and maybe he'll like pyramids too, and he'll probably be terrified of Optimus at first, at least until he gets to know him. Maybe he'll be drawn to him too. After all, they're both technically members of the Dynasty. And I'm willing to bet he'll grow up to be _very_ protective of those he considers his family." Not understanding what she was saying or just not listening, the child just continued to give her that same pleading look. "Losing his name in his last life must have really hurt him… Being stripped of who you are, until no one remembers any good you may have done in the past, sealing your fate to forever be remembered as nothing more than a monster?" Megatron looked thoughtful for a long moment. It didn't take losing one's name to bring down that fate… Shaking his head, he banished that thought. "What should we call him, then? You said he looks like a tiger. Should we call him that? Tiger?" She shook her head at that. "No. His name was… is… Nova. Nova Prime. The other Primes called him that before his fall. I heard it when I was dreaming his past, and I think it fitting that he should receive that name once again, now that he has a second chance at a peaceful life." Megatron nodded, accepting the name, especially when the child crowed his delight upon hearing it. "Why do you think that happened? Why would we dream his past? Why bring him back to life?" Zephyr shrugged at that. "I have no idea, really. This seems like an awful lot of work just to keep Unicron from gaining another servant, even for the All Spark… and Primus. Maybe it's all about second chances… saving the spark of someone who would have been a gentle, likable fellow but for outside interference, and who ended up with a bad rap for his trouble." Megatron went silent, understanding perfectly. In that manner, the Fallen was just like him. Unicron had twisted the mind of the perfectly innocent fellow the Fallen had been. In Megatron's case, the agency that had done the twisting had been the All Spark's ambient energies… or had it? Perhaps that had been Unicron as well, because why would Primus do such a thing? Or maybe prolonged exposure was just as bad…

Cute and weird, huh?

Read and review, please!


	10. They had to find out sometime

I'm getting close to the end of what I can do with no knowledge of DOTM.

Optimus chose that moment to enter with full intent to visit his brother, unwittingly disrupting the two's cuddle with their newborn son. Three heads quickly turned to look at him, and little Nova gave a frightened squeal before starting to cry. "Now look what you did," Zephyr admonished him. Ratchet, who had up to that point been completely unnoticeable behind Optimus, just semi-scowled. "First Galvatron, now the Fallen. What is _with_ you and resurrecting enemies?" She scowled right back at him, a move mirrored by Megatron where he lay, trying to comfort the bawling child who had buried his face in the chest of his adopted father. "Would you rather I let _Unicron_ resurrect him instead? That was what he was planning to do, after all. The All Spark showed me that, and how it all began." Not paying any attention to what his mate was saying, Megatron threw all his strength into speaking to his brother. "Back off, Optimus. Please. You're scaring the child." Zephyr heard him and, rather than explain what she had meant by the All Spark showing her anything, she scowled at Optimus. "He may have just been reborn, but he obviously remembers a few things… like who ended his previous life." Understanding, Optimus backed off a bit and the child began to calm down. Seeing this, Zephyr smiled. "Ah, that's better." She turned to the child in her arms. "See? He won't hurt you." The child's hysterical sobs began to ease off as he shivered in his parents' arms. Hiccupping in an almost endearing fashion, the child that had once been the Fallen shyly looked up at his 'uncle' before cuddling up closer to his father again, still shivering a bit.

"…All right," she eventually said, turning back to face Optimus and Ratchet. "I owe you guys an explanation, so an explanation is what you're going to get. So here goes." Taking a deep breath, she began. "The reason the Fallen betrayed the other members of the Dynasty was that Unicron messed with his mind. …Yes, I know it seems absurd to think that Unicron was around back then and messing with our race, but that was the case. Given that it took Primus himself to deal with him, I for one am not surprised. But I'm getting off track. Unicron messed with his mind to make him the way he was, and would have gotten his spark too if I hadn't acted. Yes, he would have gotten a hold of his spark and resurrected him just like he did with Starscream, giving him even _more_ power and a bigger vendetta against the lot of us. And besides, without Unicron's influence he really wasn't too bad. Heck, he was even _nice_ before all this. He used to be a scholar, devoting so much of his life to his work that he could even have been considered what humans term a history nerd, happily recording their race's history for future generations of both the Dynasty and our ancestors. From what I saw, he loved his job and he was dedicated to it, and he took that dedication into finding energon until Unicron corrupted him. He never knew that his mind had been twisted, and so he couldn't understand why his brothers didn't agree with his altered point of view. As far as he ever knew, _they_ betrayed _him._ He always thought he was in the right, doing what was necessary for the sake of the Dynasty and our ancestors as well, even though they didn't see it that way. They thought he went mad with the power that harvesting energon would bring him. And by the end, by the time he met the imposter and ended up going up against Optimus and the lot of us to boot, loneliness, energon deprivation and old age had taken their toll on him. In short, we didn't see him at his best. Far from it, in fact. He was old, mad and halfway starved by the time we all met him." Optimus shuddered at the realization that the enemy he had faced was nowhere near as strong as he had once been. The Fallen had utterly demolished Megatron with contemptuous ease, and he hadn't been anywhere near his full strength?

Turning, she laid a hand on little Nova's back and patted him gently, eliciting a soft coo of growing contentment. "It wasn't his fault, really. He was Unicron's unknowing tool in his previous life, an agent of chaos and destruction, and I wasn't about to let him be that again in death. And it looks to me like the All Spark wasn't either." She smiled at the child. "Second chances are what the All Spark seems to be all about, after all." Megatron gave his brother a quiet look. The All Spark had given _him_ a second chance too… Optimus sighed, getting his brother's unspoken point that he had benefited from this as well, and accepting metaphoric defeat. "…What is his name going to be?" Zephyr smiled. "He's a member of the Dynasty just like you technically are, so his name is going to be Nova Prime, just like what he was originally called before he got corrupted." The child gave a squeal upon hearing his name spoken, eliciting a confused look from Optimus. "I _told_ you a few memories still lingered," Zephyr explained. "Losing his name and being called the Fallen really hurt him, and now he's just happy to have his real name back."

Uncertain what else to do, Optimus reached out to the little one. "Hello… Nova." The child's initial reaction was to cringe against Megatron's chest with a soft little cry, but he quickly overcame that urge and looked up at his fellow Prime with an expression of outright confusion, as if trying to think of something… or remember something. They were connected somehow and he felt drawn to him, even though some small part of him was screaming that he should be afraid. Zephyr patted his back again and repeated what she had said earlier, almost verbatim. "He won't hurt you, see?" Hesitantly reaching out with one tiny hand, he grasped Optimus's finger in a very light grip, surprising the owner of said finger. "I think he realizes you two are connected," Zephyr explained. "You know, for having just been born, the kid sure seems to know a lot of stuff. Only the very basics, mind you. Nothing that could make him a threat to anybody." Optimus wasn't really listening at that point. He was too busy looking at the little newborn in her arms, who was looking up at him with all the wide-eyed innocence of one who genuinely knew nothing about his previous life. "I believe you," he said eventually, looking from the child to his mother. A moment later, he tried to pull his hand back and the child refused to let go, tightening his grip. "Nice grip, little one. Can I have my finger back, please?" Zephyr reached up with her free hand to ever so gently break little Nova's grip on Optimus's finger. Rather than relax, the child chose to cling to his mother instead. "You're right, Optimus. He _does_ have a nice grip. Just another sign that he's going to grow up to be very strong and powerful. …Strong, powerful and on the _right_ side this time."

Cute, huh?

Read and review, please!


	11. Bolt from the blue

As requested in my poll…

The presence of his mate and his newborn son seemed to put Megatron's recovery into overdrive. Pretty soon he was up and around, if a little weak and easily tired out. Wasting no time, he immediately began to help Zephyr teach Nova how to walk and talk. "I wish we could open the space bridge and go home long enough to introduce Galvie to his baby brother," he said with a sigh as Nova toddled along beside him as fast as his little legs would take him, trying so hard to keep up with his father's long strides. They had left the base behind and were walking beside the stream that formed the middle of the valley they all called home, giving Nova a good look at the world that was their adopted home. Megatron was the one who told the best stories about the world that was their true home, but Zephyr knew the most about Earth and all the things in it. She would say a word, pointing at whatever object the word was meant to represent, and Nova would repeat it. One of the child's favorite things to do was to pick up an object he didn't know the word for and take it to one of his parents so they could teach him the word for it. They couldn't help but share in his sheer enthusiasm at having so many new things to learn, and the child's delighted laughter swiftly spread to include all three of them. Sometimes the others would join in, Bumblebee especially since he was technically the youngest of the group, and they would play little games from dawn until dusk… or at least until naptime.

One fine, clear day, as they were out letting Nova frolic along the riverbank, stacking little stones into piles and watching the water sparkle in the sunlight, something caught Zephyr's attention and drew her gaze up to the clear blue sky. Megatron looked to her in confusion. "What's wrong, Zephyr? What is it?" Her blue highlights seemed to shimmer and ripple as her power reacted to something he could neither see nor sense in any other way. "A cry… A cry for help!" That was all she could manage to say at first. "I hear a machine somewhere up above, crying out for help. There's a warplane up above us from the same Air Force base you got your disguise from all those years ago, when we first came down here, and right now it's experiencing some serious technical difficulties, it sounds like. …I have to go. From the sound of things, the pilot can't eject. If he can't eject from the plane, he'll die when it crashes! I can't just sit back and let somebody die!" Saying no more, she transformed to rocket skyward, much to the dismay of Nova, who immediately began bawling. "Mama! _Mama!_" Megatron picked the little one up and held him close as they both watched her go. "It's all right, my little sunburst. She'll be back when she's done doing what she needs to do. Now let's tell the others."

Smoke trailed from both turbines as the pilot fought to keep control of his aircraft. There really didn't seem to be anything he could do… everything was malfunctioning at once, it seemed. Relaying all relevant information to the control tower, he prepared to eject… only to find out he couldn't even do that. Fear began to take hold. If he couldn't eject, that was pretty much a death sentence. But if he could get back in control, he wouldn't have to. So preoccupied was he that he failed to notice what was rising up behind him… An alien aircraft as black as coal, delicate blue traceries running along each angle and curve. Moving over one wing of his aircraft, it… transformed. Metal flexed and flowed as it went from being an alien aircraft to being an actual alien made of that same metal, huge blue eyes regarding him with a jagged-toothed smile he supposed was meant to reassure him. A moment later another transformation followed, and he found himself staring at a brown-haired woman in messy overalls sitting cross-legged on the wing of his plane, those blue traceries now seemingly one huge tattoo covering her whole body and shining from her eyes. She reached out to touch the wing of his plane and words began to scroll across the digital display in front of him. 'I am saving your life, but in return this plane is mine. You will not speak of this to anyone.' This was hardly the time to be making deals, so he just nodded. A moment and a burst of blue fire later the plane seemed to eject him of its own accord, the mysterious woman… if it had truly been a real woman at all… transforming into that alien being again and extending two very large hands to grasp the plane as if to carry it. Seemingly capable of flight all on its own, the alien began to bring the plane down in a controlled descent that he could see even as his parachute deployed to bring him down to the ground safely as well. Soon it was out of sight and he immediately decided he _definitely_ would not speak of this to anybody once he reached the ground.

She knew exactly what her use of her power had done as she began to bring the plane down to land in a carefully chosen clearing, one she and Megatron had often used during the first war. She could almost feel the first stirrings of consciousness under her hands as she unleashed her power a second time, repairing the malfunctions that had caused the trouble in the first place. Soon the plane was good as new. A moment later it transformed for the first time, into a somewhat clumsy-looking Seeker. "Oh, hello," she said. "Do you have a name?" The Seeker looked confused by all that had happened. "I used to be a warplane. But now I think I'm… Silverbolt?" She smiled at him. "Then Silverbolt you shall be. Do you feel up to flying with me, at least long enough to reach your new home?" The newly named Silverbolt grimaced ever so slightly. "Can't we just walk? After what just happened up there, I'd _much_ rather remain on the ground, thank you." She shrugged. "It'll take longer to get there, but I don't see anything wrong with walking."

"_MAMA!" _Little Nova was the first to spot her coming back in, and he toddled over to her as fast as his short little legs could take him to hug her leg and coo happily. By this point, Megatron had alerted the others to her sudden departure and the circumstances surrounding it, so everyone was out and waiting to see the newcomer. Feeling somewhat shy, Silverbolt had to be coaxed out into the open and introductions were made. There was plenty of room in the base for him to have his own room and everyone went out of their way to be nice to him. He felt the closest to Ironhide, given that both of them were good at fighting. One had eons of warfare under his belt and the other had been created from a weapon of war, so they had a great deal in common. Optimus was happy as well, given that a new Autobot had just been born and they all had a new friend.

Far, far away, a pair of inhuman figures stood under a starry night sky, one semi-crippled and draped in a tarp for vanity's sake, the other somewhat taller and with broad wings. The shorter one glowered up at the heavens with one working eye, limping a few steps away from the other and transmitting a worldwide message. _"Any and all Decepticons still left on this wretched planet, your master speaks." _The night was quiet, no living things for miles around. _"Don't believe them when they say the war is over. As long as my spark still burns, it never will be until the All Spark is mine, no matter what form it may wear." _Skyterror simply stood stock still and listened, respectful and obedient like Starscream never was. _"We can take this world and make it ours, the way we never could before. Rise up with me! Cast off the oppressor's chains! And then, in certain triumph, we can return to our true home to make it ours as well!" _He was healing slowly but surely, arm and leg and blinded eye, and once he was healed there would be hell to pay, for every miserable Autobot who dared to cross his path. And rightly so, in his mind, as the night wind whipped the tarp he wore as a cloak. His long, painful resurrection had twisted his body into hideousness as it was, and Prime had disfigured him further. _"They think the war is over. Let's show them just how wrong they are!"_

And so ends this installment. I can do no more until DOTM, since anything after this runs the risk of conflicting with that.


End file.
